Hyrule Bass

sensitivity is in your hands, save the money and buy a less expensive rod

since when are people allergic to a good spinning reel? or would rather even choose a spincast over a spinning reel? as others have said the spinning reel is likely your best bet for what you want to do. get over yourself or continue struggling with a baitcaster that wont cast what you need it to. sure a spincast is fine for what you want to do as well, but spinning is much better...

the big net is gonna be hard to learn with. i started learning with an 8 footer, made a few good throws, but still i need lots more practice. now we have a 5 foot net thats much easier to throw. i use them off the dock at smith mountain lake. at night i will have a spot light shining on the water, the light draws in baitfish, havent caught any shad yet, but plenty of alewives that i use for catfish, stripers, and bass. you have to get good rotation of the waist and upperbody. and when you throw it, having timing down is important.

the pond will probably be fine. my uncle has a pond thats no more than an acre if that with more than 25 bass and its loaded with 1lb bluegill. just remember if the fish get skinny and lots of small ones are swimming around not growing its time to pull some out. you probably wont really know for a couple of years though...

some more information would help. are you fishing a lake or river? what type of catfish are you fishing for? also, you should try good old fashioned nightcrawlers, anything will eat those, meaning any type of catfish too. channels and blues may hit the baits youre using, but it may not matter if youre fishing in flathead water. then try small live bluegill and cutbait...

i havent done any bluegill fishing this year, but i know a pond that has some in it that go over a pound. i always put them back though. theyre a blast on my lightweight rod, they just zip all over the place.

was your hookset high? you should use a side/sweeping hookset with trebles. also reel in most if not all the slack before you set the hook. gear ratio isnt your problem, it seems like technique. you should not have a slack line after a hookset unless the fish is already gone...only thing i can think of otherwise is the fish were swimming at you really fast lol i think this is sound advice. i was fishing a pond a couple weekends ago. and my bro in law and uncle and me were standing there talking. a bass broke the surface chasing bluegill right in front of us. i said watch this, he missed the bluegill so he will hit this worm immediately. i pitched out my t-rigged weightless worm just past where the fish broke, never hit the bottom and i was setting the hook into a bass...

same thing you use in the day

the bass will also have bugs, lizards, frogs, and stuff like that to eat as well. does the pond have any rocky areas for the crawfish to hide in?and is there any type of aquatic vegetation for the minnows and new fry to hide in? all things to think about if you wish to keep an active forage base for the bass to actually grow.

i prefer about an hour before sundown and after dark.

sorry, and no offense to you, but i dont think a boating safety course can be overstated. also, remember youre not only looking out for your safety on the water by what you do, you have to watch what others around you are doing, there are lots of idiots out there who probably dont even know such a thing exists. i took the course and dont even own a boat. but my uncle does, and lately he tells me to drive the boat at times, so i thought it would be prudent for me to take the course. admittedly i took the free online course, but its approved by Virginia, NASBLA, and the US Coast Guard. I live in WV, but only ever go on a boat in VA, so i took VA's course...

you should pull out all the small bass you can in a day if thats the case. to lessen the competition for food, the other bass will begin to grow larger...

i remember Mike Iaconelli stopping by and posting on a few occasions, im sure others have too...

one thing i havent seen mentioned, is that the walmart spinnerbaits come in one weight. the advantages of more expensive spinnerbaits is you can get them in other weights, and also they have a more vast selection of colors. dont get me wrong though, ive caught fish on the walmart ones just fine, but they are what they are, as in limited colors and only having one size. of course my booyah pond magic all-white with a touch of red on the head of the spinnerbait is my best producing color by a far margin...

could really care less who wins it or what happens. either way the media is gonna make it all about lebron james to the point where it gets annoying. i remember hoping james would get a ring a couple years ago just so the media would shut up about if he would ever get a ring or not.

I got the Hennessy Pure White that they dont sale in the states, apparently its only in the islands and on cruise ships. Its not bad at all, i like it. but i must be honest here, i never really tried any high dollar cognacs. nothing that costs more than Hennessy Privelege and thats about $70-80 a fifth

biggest largemouth is in my avatar biggest fish i ever caught is this striper here, you can see where the rod butt was tucking my shirt in for me lol

spinnerbaits

i often fish for catfish with a drop shot. too many people think drop shot has to be relegated to light tackle and bass fishing, but its not the case. i started using it because my main catfishing spot has grass beds on the bottom and i wanted to keep my bait out of them. i still do fish some traditional bottom rigs. mainly a slip sinker rig...

charteuse swimbaits have always seemed to work for me, in fresh water lakes as well as in the chesapeake bay.

sounds like someone may have been using them for bait, or another fish in the lake is keying in on them and trying to eat them. i first thought flathead bait too, but then you say no flatheads in the lake. are there musky?

that snake looks huge. good thing you noticed him coming, watched him, and then got rid of him. i hate snakes, its one thing i am truely terrified of and not afraid to admit it, i will run and holler like a girl from a snake lol. (i have been known to run from a small unpoisonous snake in the woods and tear down small trees and break branches along the way LOL)

so lets get this straight here. you are catching atleast 21 fish every outting? and what a vicious 21 fish they must be to destroy the bait everytime that you only get one use from each. i think youre wasting them, are too anal/skeptical about a partially torn bait, or arent thinking slightly out of the box...here is a quote of mine i took from another recent thread about rage craws in response to you only getting one fish per craw and claws tearing off

sounds like you should target the hungry musky with bass colored baits. i know i would. but i like fishing for multiple species, not sure if you only bass fish or do other fishing...

my favorite pond gets it bad. i found the best way to fish it is definately with weightless plastics and top water frogs.